A wedding video is a popular theme, as it should be. I've been requested often to do a newsletter
about them. Now that I'm in the middle of a wedding project myself, the latest email from a reader
pushed me over the top.... it's time to do one, with a '....disclaimer.....

....it's into the artistic end of editing, not the technical computer stuff that most
of my material is about.

Art is highly subjective, subject to individual tastes. You may disagree with my approach...better
yet, you should have your own style which works for you.

But it may help to share info about editing styles, and I'm always in favor of sharing what I
know or what I do.

The latest request was from someone who was editing videos taken by other people.... I've never
done that. All the weddings I've edited were also shot by me.

My current wedding project is the first one with Movie Maker 2, and the first one using a website
as another way to distribute it. Here's the link to it.

You may have noticed that this site is also tucked into the newest branch of my main website
menu, the one called 'Living Projects'.

I'm up to 9 videos on the site so far for a total of 36+ minutes... the website is very modular,
a great way to let people pick and choose what they want to see. They all know the story so there's
no need to bore them with more than they want to see. If someone just wants to see that one dance
scene with themselves in it, they can do so. If the brides mother wants to see the ceremony a hundred
times, she can do it. Websites and links are great.

Editing is so easy today that I can actually enjoy the wedding in while shooting the video.
It used to be such that editing was so hard to do that I'd do 99% of the editing in my head as I
did the shooting..... instead of enjoying the moment, I'd be constantly thinking about the next
shot. Only lately have I finished changing my mentality to one of so easily disposing of bad clips
that it's OK to have mostly garbage on the tape... instead of turning the camcorder off and on to
avoid fast pans and zooms, I leave it running and edit them out. The bad stuff is so easily discarded....
I can put my full energies into getting better clips.

On one hand, weddings are great subjects.... if a movie is a story, we all know the story ahead
of time. But, on the other hand, if everyone knows the story, they may get bored much quicker and
the editor had better make the video worth watching.

Before getting into it more, a few notes about things going on...

Notices

• My Toshiba laptop is back after 3 weeks in the repair shop in Texas, with a new hard drive
and new combo CD/DVD drive.... I'll pick it up tomorrow. It'll have the operating system and software
that it had when I got it new 1-1/2 years ago.... guess I'll have some updating to do with it.

• Got an email from Microsoft today... a notice that I was given an MVP award for my 3rd
year... The people at Microsoft are great to work with and I look forward to the upcoming year.

....on to the topic of the week

Thoughts About Wedding Videos

Planning

I had an hour sit-down with the bride, going over the schedule and her preferences
for the video.... finding out things like ".... should I get little speeches from the guests....
or just shoot what was happening?", and did she want the video to include older pictures as so many
do... if so I'd need her to get me some pictures to scan. A few dozen points like that.

Today's planning includes additional points to consider. Should I shoot it in standard 4:3
aspect ratio or widescreen? We opted for standard as the couple and their parents don't yet
have widescreen TVs or monitors. Did they want a website with videos on it, or just DVDs? Did they
need any VCR tapes in addition to DVDs?

In the equipment department, I had my new digital camcorder (Sony TRV80) but no extra battery
for it.... I got one a couple weeks ahead of time.... and some extra tapes. You can never have too
many.

Shooting the Video

When I shoot a wedding, I do the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner the day before, the wedding preps,
ceremony and reception, and the morning breakfast or brunch the day after.... it's a 3-day weekend
affair.

The still photographer is still the director of the production.... he does all the work to stage
the wedding party. With a camcorder's zoom lens, it's easy to work around him, and get the benefit
of his work.

The wedding ceremony was outdoors, great for a digital camcorder. If it rained and we
had to move indoors, I might have changed to my Hi8 analog camcorder, which does considerably better
in low light conditions. With the good weather, I laid the Hi8 one on my backpack fairly close to
the front, turned it on, and let it capture the full audio from when guests started arriving until
the end of the recessional.... 2 hours on the Hi8 tape was enough to get the entire audio. I moved
around with the digital camcorder, using my tripod as much as I could, and hand-holding it at other
times.

I had the Creative Zen Portable Media Center for that weekend..... so I put some video
of the resort the wedding was going to be at on it to let those at the rehearsal dinner see it.
Then the video of the rehearsal dinner went on it to show at the reception.... from camcorder to
Zen with minimal editing. Just for the novelty of it. I let the Zen be passed around to anyone who
wanted to see it.

The dancing at the reception party is often a great part of the final video. But how low would
the lighting be and how best to shoot it? There was a live band on a stage that was pretty well
lit. And the dance floor was pretty dim. So I put the digital camcorder on a tripod to shoot
the band as I walked around with the Hi8 to take footage of the dancing. The Hi8 does so well in
such conditions that I'd buy another to replace it if I needed to, instead of buying a second digital
one. Until low light is better handled by the digital ones, I'll continue using one of each as appropriate.

Thoughts about the Editing Phase

In the editing phase, you combine the computer technical aspects with the artistic...

....about the computer setup and file logistics

With the large size of DV-AVI files, computer setup and capabilities often guide or dictate
the methods of managing source files and saved movies. My primary editing computer is my Toshiba
laptop, which is still in the shop for repairs. It has a 60 GB hard drive and I usually run with
about 15 GB free.... not enough space to capture most of the 3+ hours of video for the wedding project.
That's fine, as I work on the project in a very modular way, one small video at a time. So far the
longest video is 7:02 and it'll probably end up as the longest one.

The laptop is always connected to my other computers via our home network.... where I have hundreds
of GB free on other hard drives. More than enough total space to manage it all, with the 'master'
files on one drive and backup copies on another. The laptop only needs the files to work on one
video at a time.

I've dubbed the analog footage to digital tapes, so all is on digital tapes for the editing
phase. And my database has all the info about which tapes have which scenes, their starting points,
etc. This was all done before starting to capture any footage to the computer.

After finishing each video, I'm rendering it 3 times: (1) high quality DV-AVI files to
make DVDs at the end of the project, (2) medium quality WMV files - 800kbps 640x480 - for
CD versions of the website videos, and (3) lower quality WMV files - 400kbps 320x240 - for
the website.

....about style

With the ongoing project tucked into my Movie Maker website, you can check my style by viewing
any of the videos whenever you want to.

Check online for other examples from professional studios. Shutters Video is one that does weddings:

....click the link at the bottom of the page to the wedding video - special ending. It's
a WMV file of 5:22 duration. It looks and sounds pretty good.... assess it a bit and you'll see
that it's a pretty simple editing job with:

37 clips that average 8.7 seconds
dissolve transitions are used almost exclusively
a few slow motion effects were added

....about editing wedding videos

My overall video shooting and editing style leans toward the documentary, even more so
for a wedding. I don't need to develop the story.... we all know it. I don't need to direct it...
the wedding coordinator and photographer take care of that. I just need to get enough good clips
to put them together into videos. An hour total is perfect for a DVD, and long enough to adequately
cover all segments of a wedding.

Michael Rabiger's book 'Directing the Documentary' is a good one. It includes this caution:
"Most people learn film technique by copying other filmmakers.... but one should search for the
roots of their craft in life itself, not in others. A copy of a copy is always degraded. Your ideas
and feelings about life should be preeminent, and you should use screen techniques as the vehicle
for their realization."

About 1/5 of the book is devoted to the editing process, with many good points.

Here's my personal take on a set of guidelines for editing a wedding video

review the clips - you have only them to work with.... sort them into logical segments,
and copy some to two or more segments. A close-up of flowers in the reception room might look great
someplace in the scenes of the ceremony. It's easier to get the close-ups in the reception.... at
weddings the flowers are often moved around. You can move the clips around too.

a guide for documentaries is to establish the major timeflow first before breaking off
into others.... rather than having flashback slideshows or video of the bride and groom at the beginning,
before the wedding timeline is well established, how about doing the visual flashbacks during the
talks by the bridesmaid, best man, and father of the bride. I'd do some flashbacks during the readings
and sermon of the ceremony, but that might be too irreverent.

edit a rough cut - let your material tell you where and how to cut it. The more you let
your material decide, the more obvious the right points will be become, and you'll be in the zen
of editing. Let it flow.

Don't worry about length or balance in the rough cut. Leave everything long and don't
worry about repetition. It's important to see the whole long film as soon as possible before doing
any detailed editing work.

Keep changing hats from editor to first time viewer.

Decide on the ideal length after the first viewing. Most beginners films are agonizingly long
and slow.

Avoid trying to fix everything in one session. Wait a few days and think things over. Then tackle
only the major needs of the film. Don't jump into fine-tuning too soon.

Editing: the Process of Refinement
Once a reasonable order for the material has been found, you'll want to combine sound and action
in a form that takes advantage of counterpoint techniques. Bring the sound from one shot together
with the image from another. Bring the materials into juxtaposition. The dance scenes of the wedding
are great opportunities for alternating counterpoints.... if you can use two camcorders... if not,
fake it with the material from one, integrating the visual clips with the sound track.

The J and L audio cuts are contrapuntal editing features that draw you into the scene,
as if you were there.

Narration - it's not fashionable to use third party authoritative narration.

Narration is so intrusive that if it's not first rate, it'll degrade rather than enhance. If
you narrate, use it to complement the images, not duplicating them.

Music - can be misused as a dramatic crutch. Like narration, it should complement the
visual, not substitute for anything.

Be aware of copyright issues and do what is appropriate. I have the permissions of the bride
and groom, their parents, and the band to use all the video in all my published works.

Procrastination is always good. Stop working on it for a while and do something else.

Mini-Tutorial: Editing the Wedding Video

I started with over 3 hours of footage, a couple hours of digital and another 1-1/4 hours of
analog.

With 9 videos finished and another 5 or so to go, my approach to the editing has evolved a bit
as I've gone through them..... I'm in the middle of doing #10 right now, the video of the processional.
I'll use it to show my approach in a bit more detail.

The finished videos are on the website, on CDs as interim releases, in DV-AVI formats for the
DVD at the end, and there are backup copies of all files on another computer's hard drive.

Wedding Processional - the Source Files

I've been creating a new folder for each of the videos, putting all the source files, the Movie
Maker project file, and the saved movies in it.... the figure below shows the current set of files
for the recessional.

There's (1) the project file, which I'll show you later, (2) the 'EnhancedNarration'
wma file which I'll explain below, (3) the '54D-Audio DV-AVI' file that I captured from the
camcorder for the audio track, (4) two captured video DV-AVI files for the video... I finished
the first capture a bit too soon so I had to pick up the rest as another capture file, (5)
11 still pictures in JPG format from our digital still camera, and (6) 2 frame captures from
another DV-AVI source file, pictures that fit more in this video.

Recessional - Source Files

A file starting with 54D means it's the 4th segment of video on tape number 54. If I go to the
record in my database for tape 54, it'll tell me it starts 31 minutes into the tape. The first thing
I do when I open a new tape is mark it with the next tape number and start the database record for
it.

Prep the Source Files

Once you have the source files rounded up, it's tempting to jump into the video editing project....
fine to play with them a bit, but it's best to go over each and do some prepping.

I have two audio tracks for this video, one from each of the camcorders. I was mostly
hand-holding the digital one, so it got whatever was around it at the time. The analog one was lying
still on my backpack.... running from the beginning of the guests being seated phase to the end
of the processional. So the digital had good but spotty audio and the analog had the full but lesser
FM quality audio.

I dubbed the Hi8 tape to the digital camcorder, and then captured the digital tape to get the
file named '54D-Audio.avi'. You can tell from the 2 GB file size that it's about 9 minutes in duration
(the picture of the working project below shows the overall project duration as 9-1/2 minutes, the
length of the audio file).

After capturing the 2 GB segment just for the audio, I rendered it to the 'Audio-Recessional.wma'
file, played the file in WMP10, adjusting the equalizer controls to 'enhance' the audio. As I played
it in WMP, I captured it into MM2.1 using the Narration capture wizard and the stereo mix option.
That got me the 'EnhancedNarration.wma' file. It might sound like a bit of work, but you can see
from the file timestamps that the enhanced file was created 15 minutes after the wma file
was extracted from the DV-AVI file.

The 11 still pictures from the digital camera will need cropping for better content and
to get them into 4:3 aspect ratios. I'll do that with IrfanView, but only when I've decided to use
one in the project. if I did the work first, I'd feel more compelled to use them all, even if they
didn't quite fit.

The 2 video snapshots (JPG) are appropriately sized already. Snapshots from either my
digital camcorder or MM2 are so easy to take and use. Note that all the still pictures on the website's
main pages are simply snapshots of video frames taken by my camcorder.... when I preview the video
in the camcorder, anytime I see a frame I want, I press a button and it makes a snapshot of the
frame on a memory card.

Start the Movie Maker Project

With all the source files ready for the early editing phase, I imported the audio first
and put it on the timeline..... that gives me the first reading of a logical maximum length for
the video..... 09:34.

Then I imported the two video files, getting two collections with clips. From there I
looked at each clip in sequence, subdividing them further.... using any bad video spot as the dividing
point. A bad spot could be a blurry frame, a quick pan or zoom, the photographer jumping in front
of me (which he did a lot), etc. Once or twice I split the clip with no bad spot, just to divide
different scenes into different clips. I discarded all the pure junk clips. I have one scene in
each clip, all with good frames, but without the start or stop trim points being selected. I'll
do the clip trimming in the timeline as the project takes shape so I can easily change the location
of the trim point.

Once the clips in the collections were split , I renamed them with sequential numbers, sorted
them by name and batched them into the timeline.

In the timeline view, I fine tuned the start and stop trim points of each clip. The Next and
Previous frame buttons under the monitor are great for scanning each clip as you look for the sweet
spots to start and stop.

After trimming, the overall duration of the video clips is 3 minutes and 40 seconds, as you can
see from this view of the project. That's about 1/3 the duration of the audio track. I haven't clipped
and trimmed the audio yet, which will reduce it... and I haven't added any of the still pictures
to the timeline, which will expand it.

Recessional Video - Early Editing Phase

That's as far as I've gotten on this video so far. From this point I'll:

• view the entire project a few times to see where things drag on, and where spots need something
more

• for the clips that drag on, trim them some more

• for the places that need more, look at the 13 still pictures and import appropriate ones into
the project, after cropping in IrfanView to the 4:3 aspect ratio.... or take snapshots from the
video clips and add them to the timeline, essentially re-using the good material by stopping on
a particularly appropriate spot to linger a bit, or to add good filler material for some padding
as needed. Panning and zooming on a still image in the video, as the background audio continues,
is almost like having another video clip.

• as I work to add more to the video and at the same time prune extra from clips with too much,
I'll be listening to both audio tracks, that with the video clips and the enhanced full one....
I won't be editing the audio yet, just making mental notes about which clips have the better audio.
As both camcorders were in different locations, they each have different audio (unlike the dance
scenes later, where the band's speaker system provides more than enough sound to fill both camcorders
at the same time.

• when the clips are just about right, I'll add any transitions and effects. I agree with the
video on that professional website.... dissolves or fades from one clip to another is the right
kind of soft touch for a wedding theme, the kind of transition you can do even with MM1. The focus
of a wedding video is on the bride, then the groom, then the parents and others.. it's not about
cute or whiz bang effects and transitions.

• the transitions will effect the overall duration of the timeline, and the sync between the
video and audio, so only after they are done will I start fine-tuning the audio.

For the audio editing, I'll choose which audio track to use. It might be from one camcorder or
the other, or both together at some relative volume.... the string trio was playing during much
of the recessional so I'll keep their complete pieces as background music, or foreground music if
the other audio is just background noise.

The resting time between the classical string pieces was appropriate for the group when playing
them, but too long for the videos... when editing, I've been reducing the pause between the musical
pieces considerably.

• I haven't been using text clips for titles or credits.... not yet. With the website being the
current method of distribution, the web pages have more than enough text.... so the videos just
fade open, do their thing and fade to a close. The exceptions so far are the few dance videos of
the reception, and the two children at the flagpole, where I've used a little text and some iTunes
visualizations as opening/closing clips.

• The DVDs won't have the web pages with the text, so I may add some text when preparing for
or authoring the DVD.

That's as far as this tutorial goes. Some closing remarks:

Closing

My wedding project is ongoing and on schedule...

I thought that putting shorter videos on the website would help the bride and groom view
them via their dial-up connections. But it's still too much for them.... yesterday I went
to the office of the bride's father and loaded the full website from a CD, so he wouldn't have to
wait for the downloading.... the audio played but not the video. as his work computer runs Windows
Me with WMP7.0.... I left it to upgrade to WMP9, the forecast download time was 2 hours, and it
was time for him to close the office for the day. I'll find out next week if he ever got to see
them on that computer.

.... his home computer situation is better... Windows XP with a version of WMP that plays
the videos. But his dial-up connection is worse... what takes about 5 seconds to start playing on
any computer in my house takes more than an hour at theirs.... I've had lots of food and drinks
over there as we wait for the next video to finish downloading.... waiting can be a good thing.

And the bride and groom tell me their dial-up connections are worse yet. To prove it, they tell
me that, in a month they've seen the website lots but none of the videos.

You can see why people need it on a DVD.

Your editing style is different than mine and anyone else.... keep it that way and make your
videos the best you can with the material you have.

I find that each wedding project is different... better and easier. This one is with MM2 and
distributing via a website, CDs and DVDs. My previous one was using MM1 and VCR tapes. Before that
was my Hi8 camcorder dubbing directly to a VCR tape. Before that 8mm camcorder tape to a VCR.....
I didn't do my own wedding over 40 years ago, but those I did at the time were on 8mm film with
a projector/screen to view them. Yesterday's challenge was to just make a video and get it out for
viewing.... today's tools are so much better, and they put the more significant challenge where
it should be.... on the creative aspects of editing the videos.

I read lots of posts about needing higher end hardware and software to shoot and edit professional
wedding videos.... but I've also seen a number of professionally produced videos. The brides and
grooms are the first to say that my Movie Maker productions are better than what they paid for.

I look forward to comments and discussion about this and other newsletters on the forums at:

When ordering these books or anything else from Amazon, I'd appreciate you using the links on
the main page of
www.papajohn.org - I get some income from Amazon that way, and it doesn't cost you any more.
It'll help keep most of my services free.

Websites:

Movie Maker 2 -
www.papajohn.org - two goals: to help you solve problems, and to be the online companion to
the Do Amazing Things book... and currently thinking of another goal of movie making and editing
styles.

If
you can't save a movie because your project has become too complex, e-mail it to me and
I'll divide it into manageable sub-projects for you, and provide detailed instructions to render
the parts and assemble them into your final movie. $49.95 - for details, see the sidebar on
the Problem Solving > Can't Save a Movie page of

Movie Maker 2/Photo Story 2 training and support services start at $50 per hour -
email me at
PapaJohn@CharterMi.net and I'll help you determine your needs, and work with you to plan
and implement them.

This newsletter is a good one to start including wedding website/video packages,
starting at $2,500 + travel expenses. See
www.jill-mark.papajohn.org for a sample.

About John 'PapaJohn' Buechler from Microsoft.com

John "PapaJohn" Buechler, of Kalamazoo, Mich., goes by PapaJohn
online. An avid user of Movie Maker since its first release, and a
regular supporter of the community of Movie Maker users, John
received a 2003 MVP award from Microsoft for that support. In March
2003, he started a comprehensive website about Movie Maker 2 at
www.PapaJohn.org.
He maintains the website, writes books and articles, teaches, and
provides support services - all for the community of Movie Maker 2
users. An engineer by formal education, John is a computer database
and multimedia expert by business and personal experience. He
co-authored the first book about Movie Maker 2 and is actively
working on a second one. You can find his advice in the
Windows XP Movie Maker newsgroup and in the
Windows Movie Makers Forums.

This
newsletter is republished with permission of John "PapaJohn" Buechler.
Please note that this is an archive of
newsletters and some information may become outdated. PapaJohn, and the webmaster of this
site, provides this information"AS IS" with no warranties.

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